PRONUNCIATION LEARNING STRATEGIES USED BY FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS AT VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Abstract

The more quickly Vietnam develops and integrates into the world, the greater the demand for communicating in English becomes. It is well acknowledged that pronunciation is one of the keys leading to successful communication. There are many studies exploring teaching and learning pronunciation; however, the use of pronunciation learning strategies of learners still remains underexplored, especially in the Vietnamese context. This study attempts to gain some preliminary insights into the trend of using pronunciation learning strategies of first- year students at Vietnam National University. In addition, the reasons influencing students’ strategy choice is also shed light on, from that several practical suggestions for the teachers are offered in the hope of developing pronunciation strategies for their students. To achieve these aims, questionnaires and interviews are utilized. The findings indicate that the cognitive group is most favorably employed by students. The reasons behind this trend are subject to classroom practice, less demanding nature of the strategies and learner’s awareness of the importance of those strategies. Besides, some strategies that are less used by students are also explored, which calls teachers’ attempts to develop pronunciation strategies for their students, thus promoting students’ motivation in using pronunciation strategies as well as their pronunciation ability.